Time jitter analysis of 1-bit sigma-delta synthesizer

We introduce a general analysis of time jitter in a sigma-delta synthesizer. One of the practical applications of a 1-bit sigma-delta systems is generation of a high-resolution local oscillator (LO). LO signals in transmit/receive circuits are typically generated using synthesizers, direct-digital synthesis (DDS), etc. In order to generate LO signals, one may use a single-bit sigma-delta technique to encode sine waves. Due to hardware constraints, the sigma-delta output is generally injected into a frequency multiplier system in order to generate high frequency LO signals. Today, direct generation of a high frequency sinewave using a clock with higher frequency is possible. We analyze these different techniques and develop some robust tools that help to create a practical way of computation to decide how to choose the best configuration under minimum degradation of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output of the LO generator system.